PORTION OF JACOB

Jacob had been an ambitious, grasping man. The Bible says that covetousness is idolatry, Col. 3. 5. Jacob was surrounded by idolaters and spiritually he was at one time guilty of idolatry. But the idols serve up a very lean portion. Happily, Jacob experienced a breaking of his covetous will, and in the end he appears in scripture as a contented man who enjoyed the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen. At life’s end we see Jacob leaning on his pilgrim’s staff as he worshipped God. He died in faith, not having received the promises but, having seen them afar off, he was assured of them, embraced them and confessed that he was a stranger and pilgrim on the earth, Heb. 11. 13. He discovered his portion in God that so far eclipsed the tinsel idols of earth. To him Christ was all and in all.

The nation that descended from Jacob, and that takes the name of Jacob, will repeat his experience. They will come into a time of trouble and will wrestle with the Angel of the Lord. By this they will be broken, but they will receive the blessing.

Isaiah is very helpful in showing us God’s thoughts of covetousness which is idolatry Isa. 40.18-20; 41. 7; 44. 9-20; and 46. 5-7. These passages show how illogical, how grotesque and how fear-laden idolatry really is. The idol maker becomes totally irrational. ‘He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?’, Isa. 44. 20.

Jeremiah takes up a similar strain when he describes the visual appeal of idolatry in chapter 10 of his prophecy. But for all the idol’s allure, after it is set up, its appearance is little more than that of a scarecrow in a field.

The offspring of Jacob will discover that satisfaction can only be found in the transcendent God who made heaven and earth. A great gulf separates ‘the Portion of Jacob’ from the restless greedy imaginations of mankind who crave fulfilment apart from the one true God; ‘for he is the maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; The Lord of hosts is his name’, Jer. 10.16 NKJV.